2012 SECA Art Award Recipient
Josh Faught, Untitled, from BE BOLD For What You Stand For, BE CAREFUL For What You Fall For, 2013; collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Josh Faught
BE BOLD For What You Stand For, BE CAREFUL For What You Fall For, 2013
Mining rich histories of craft, Josh Faught creates sculptures that pair traditional textile and homespun techniques, such as loom-weaving, knitting, and crocheting, with everyday objects that reference domesticity and often feature political slogans and elements of kitsch. His assemblages typically start with raw fibers that he hand dyes with organic materials, such as ground-up cochineal bugs, or covers with artificial substances like spray paint or nail polish. His labor-intensive sculptures draw on histories of gender and sexual politics, precariously balancing an urgent sense of anxiety with a nostalgic view of the present.
Faught’s BE BOLD For What You Stand For, BE CAREFUL For What You Fall For (2013), a constellation of handwoven sculptures, responds to the historical importance and emotional resonance of the Neptune Society Columbarium, a repository for cremation urns in San Francisco’s Inner Richmond neighborhood. Housed in a 19th-century neoclassical building, it is the only nondenominational cemetery within city limits and is home to more than 8,000 inurnment niches. It is the final resting place for many generations of San Franciscans, including cultural figures, artists, and other notable residents. Faught, based in San Francisco, is particularly interested in the ways that the Columbarium reflects the historical presence of the queer community. His installation is inspired by the visual language of the memorials that pay tribute to the deceased. These often include flowers and photographs augmented by holiday decorations, personal items, and lighthearted knickknacks. Incorporating similar sentiments of remembrance and humor, his sculptures are embellished with objects such as plastic snacks, activist buttons, and greeting cards. For the artist, these materials represent forms of emotional support.
Sited throughout the Columbarium, his installation includes two freestanding works of crocheted and woven yarn on wooden armatures and one large textile consisting of strips of loom-woven fabric that engages with the central rotunda. For this commission, he restricted his color palette to hues that artist and designer William Morris articulated in the early 20th-century Arts and Crafts movement, such as cochineal pink, indigo blue, walnut brown, and weld yellow. “Each of these natural dyes has a somewhat fugitive quality, which extends to some of the thematic narratives in the content of the work around transition and time,” Faught explains.
Commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, courtesy the artist and Lisa Cooley, New York; with special thanks to the Neptune Society of Northern California
Major support for the 2012 SECA Art Award: Zarouhie Abdalian, Josh Faught, Jonn Herschend, David Wilson is provided by SECA (Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art), an SFMOMA art interest group. Generous support is provided by Carlie Wilmans. Additional support is provided by the SECA Circle of Friends.
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Artist Josh Faught reflects on his SFMOMA commission, a series of woven sculptures that respond to the architecture and history of the Neptune Society Columbarium in San Francisco, a nondenominational repository for cremation urns.